For the second year in a row, I was accepted as Press to attend Planet Comicon in Kansas City, Missouri, and I am fortunate enough to report that it remains one of my favorite conventions in the country, even if it is a relatively dire thirteen hour drive away from our humble abode in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a [mostly] well-managed, clean, and impeccably organized convention that gets great guests and has fun panels.

We arrived in Kansas City around noon on Friday, March 21st after having split the drive into two parts on Thursday (we made it as far as St. Louis on day one, then met up with my family who lives out that way and drove in with them the next morning). By the time we checked into our hotel for the weekend and headed to the Kansas City Convention Center, it was around 1:30 in the afternoon.

This is where I will say the convention was only MOSTLY well-organized, as my wife had to wait in a line to get into the convention, as she had a pre-paid pass. I could have entered without the line due to my press credentials, but… what sort of husband would that make me? So we waited in the line, and it did not move at all for some time, despite the fact that the con had been open for over half an hour at that point. So we waited, wrapped around the building, until about 2:45 before we finally got in. Oddly, in front of the doors to the convention center, the line ended and became… a horde of humanity? And I don’t mean that all systems broke down and the people just formed their own mass; this was the intention of the line. It was… weird. In the mass of folks, you crept forward until making it to the a point where the horde was funneled into a door for will-call.

I wasn’t a fan of this system, and it was the longest I ever waited to get into a convention that was already open and going on, but what can you do? Thankfully we had our wristband at this point and would not have to wait in the same line Saturday!

Complaints about the line aside, once inside everything was gravy. Planet Comicon is well-organized and has banners hanging overhead to clearly guide you to your destination. The comic book talent makes up an L-shape around the far wall from where you enter, so you can basically go down a systematic line and get your autographs and meet-and-greets.

Aside from that, at one end of the hall is the cosplay showcase and gaming area. At the other far end is the celebrity guest area. And everywhere in the middle was packed with vendors selling everything from comic books to dice to fudge to custom goods.

We spent Day One of the convention perusing the vendors and seeing what they had to offer. We didn’t spend a ton, but I got a few art prints and a stuffed Torterra because I am an adult man that sometimes wants plushie Pokemon. My wife got some Halloween decorations and tried to talk me into buying dice despite the fact that she won’t play Dungeons and Dragons with me, so who am I to roll them with?

Unfortunately, due to our decision to spend the day frequenting the vendors booths, we missed one panel we had forgotten took place on Friday and would have loved to attend: A Supernatural panel with stars of the show Jim Beaver and Richard Spleight. I had set aside Saturday as my “panel day”, and I forgot this presumably excellent showcase was taking place on Friday. Nuts! Next time, I’ll pay more attention.

After wrapping up the night early–again, it was a lot of driving just to get to Kansas City–we got dinner and headed back to the room to sort out what we bought and get ready for the busier Saturday ahead.

Saturday, where we had more time to prepare, saw my wife Amanda get into her cosplay gear she had made for herself. She was going as the feature character of one of her book series that she loves, Violet Sorrengail. She was afraid that people at a COMIC BOOK convention might not recognize her as a character from a fantasy novel, but it was a fear in vain, as she was asked for plenty of photos with fans.

But yes, after getting to the convention and killing time on the main floor waiting for the best panels to start, we did indeed start checking out said panels. First up was a panel on Horror Comics:

The talent involved here was impressive, with Bunn and Moore being two big names in the comics field. They discussed what got them into horror (with plenty of shout-outs to anthology shows like Tales From The Dark Side), blending horror with other genres, the benefits of colorization vs black and white comics, and building anticipation in the genre.

Best line of the panel went to Jeremy Haun who related a story Cullen Bunn told (when he was a child, he saw a man crawl out from under his house) back to himself (claiming to be the man under Bunn’s home).

Next up was a Q&A panel with former Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.

Joe was joined by current Marvel EIC C.B. Cebulski, and the two of them shared their thoughts on the comic book company giant. They discussed the legacy of the Marvel Knights line, Joe’s days when Marvel was in bankruptcy and working past that, the upcoming Marvel/DC crossover, and apps vs comics in print.

In addition to those shared topics, Joe himself had a presentation on his new company, Amazing Comics and the works coming out of that (including a Hamlet adaptation called Disciple). He is also returning to Marvel for The World To Come: A continuation of the Marvel Knights line.

Our third and final panel of the day saw us listening in to a discussion on the history of one of the biggest comic characters of all time, Batman.

Again, we had some great talent talking their takes on the Dark Knight, including their favorite members of his rogues gallery and Bat-Family, their individual work on Batman, and how they think the character works best.

After this, we left the panel hall for a bit to get snacks and get in line for my wife’s highlight of the show: getting a photo op and meeting with Vincent D’Onofrio. She has been a fan of his since his days on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and she was excited to get to say hello to him and get a picture.

And with the exception of a bit more roaming of the main hall before getting together with family for dinner, that was the end of our Planet Comicon experience. We unfortunately did not attend Sunday, day three of the convention, because again: thirteen hour drive. That was what finished off our weekend.

On the whole, Planet Comicon does, indeed, remain one of my favorite shows in the nation. Getting into the building might be something of an unwieldy chore, but once inside, it’s easy to navigate, wide-open, and very enjoyable. It’s genuinely one of the more put-together cons I attend on a regular basis. And I look forward to possibly driving back in 2026!